In response to discussions that a prototype of the robot dog was already mentioned in a master’s thesis published in 2016, Unitree Robotics founder Wang Xingxing said that he had come up with the idea back in 2013, and as early as 2009, he had already made a small humanoid robot.
According to a report from the CCTV News client, Wang Xingxing made the above remarks in an interview at the Sub-Forum on Innovation and Cooperation in Humanoid Robots at the 8th Hongqiao International Economic Forum.
Some netizens discovered that Wang Xingxing’s 2016 master’s thesis already contained the prototype of the Unitree robot dog. The thesis, titled “Development and Testing of a New-Type Electrically-Driven Quadruped Robot”, proposed new design rules to improve energy efficiency and operational reliability, and presented a complete design for a small electrically-driven quadruped robot named XDog.
In response, Wang Xingxing said that the idea was from quite early on, and the design of the robot dog in question was a plan from 2013. “When I thought of the plan, I even considered dropping out to start a business, but at the time it was just an idea—since there was nothing concrete yet. Later, I actually managed to make it.”
In response, Wang Xingxing said that the idea was from quite early on, and the design of the robot dog in question was a plan from 2013. “When I thought of the plan, I even considered dropping out to start a business, but at the time it was just an idea—since there was nothing concrete yet. Later, I actually managed to make it.”
He said that, at least in terms of the quadruped robot portion of the company’s business and development direction, these had already been thought out in 2014 and 2015 and then became reality. In 2009, he personally made a small humanoid robot, but after completing it, he felt there was no hope worldwide—there was no way to commercialize it and it had little practical value. For many years, the company did not pursue humanoid robots.
Wang Xingxing said that, subsequently, with the remarkable advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) for the entire robotics field, including large-model AI technologies, people’s imagination has been reignited. In recent years, the development of humanoid robots has been extremely rapid.